![]() ![]() In the mid-1970s, the company had about 800 employees in the Chicago area. and the corporate headquarters moved to California, it had 70 branch offices (including central offices in Chicago and New York), about $75 million in annual revenues, and some 13,000 full-time employees worldwide. By the late 1960s, just after the name of the enterprise became Pinkerton's Inc. In 1937, Robert Pinkerton II, a great-grandson of the founder, ended the firm's antiunion operations. By the time Allan Pinkerton died in 1884, his sons William and Robert Pinkerton were leading the company, which had about 2,000 full-time employees and several thousand “reservists.” During the 1920s, annual revenues approached $2 million. When the two sides exchanged gunfire, nine strikers and seven Pinkerton agents were killed. The company's most infamous strike-busting operation came in 1892, when 300 Pinkerton employees fought with workers at the Homestead, Pennsylvania, steel plant owned by Andrew Carnegie. Starting in the 1870s, Pinkerton detectives also began to work for industrial companies as spies and strikebreakers, and they quickly became despised by American labor. Much of its business came from banks and express companies, who wanted to deter robberies. After the war, promoting itself with the slogan “we never sleep,” the company opened offices in New York City and Philadelphia. During the Civil War, the company provided intelligence to the Northern armies that was not particularly accurate. ![]() By late 1850s, Pinkerton employed 15 operatives. One of the first private detective agencies in the United States, this company worked for the Illinois Central and other railroads. By the beginning of the 1850s, Pinkerton and a partner had established the North-Western Police Agency, which had its offices at Washington and Dearborn Streets in Chicago. I can’t wait to put this desk back into use.Allan Pinkerton emigrated from Scotland to the United States in 1842, when he was 23 years old he soon settled in the town of Dundee, northwest of Chicago. I’m fairly certain I can find it cheaper, but I’m not sure where I can look (outside of hardware stores). The local Lowe’s hardware store sells the one I want for $50. I’m also shopping for some sturdy, thick and transparent plexiglass. The desk will be in the garage until I can make some room for it in my (already-cramped) studio. I had no idea what state it was in until I tested it at home. Here’s the desk after my initial sanding. I purchased some find grade (120) sandpaper to remove all the graphite and ink stains. My first course of action in restoring this desk to its original state was to sand off the wooden surfaces. (I need to find one cheap! Any suggestions?) Embedded inside the circular opening is a circular fluorescent light bulb. Underneath the heavily scratched plexiglass is a solid wooden surface with a circular opening, where the animation disc would go. Here’s the desk, as it arrived in our place. I’ve taken a few pictures to paint a visual picture. The one I managed to get my hands was grungy and worn, but structurally, in very solid shape. Having been a mainstay in the classroom environment, this desk (and its brethren, no doubt) had certainly seen its share of abuse. This solid specimen was being retired after 6 years of service at the institution I teach at, to make way for new, beefier replacements. My latest serendipitous venture led me to the acquisition of an old animation desk. ![]() Every now and then I happen to find myself at the right place at the right time. ![]()
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